Posted on 12/16/2003 7:04:09 PM PST by aculeus
A conference organiser based in London gave an explicit account yesterday of a winter afternoon spent in a German hotel being marked up for execution by confessed cannibal Armin Meiwes.
The 27-year-old clean-shaven and black-haired Dirk Moller was ushered into the Kassel courtroom through a concealed entrance to avoid a battery of television cameras and photographers waiting outside, and his address was not given in open court. An earlier witness wore ski goggles and a hat. No one wants to be identified as the partner of one of Europe's most notorious cannibals.
After the London witness briefly confirmed his name and profession, Judge Volker Muetze cleared the court of reporters, spectators and the court artist. Even the court stenographer was blind.
The significance of Mr Moller and the preceding witness, Jorg Buse, is that both were in a position where they could have been killed and eaten by Meiwes -- but both panicked at the last moment and were then allowed to go home unharmed.
The cannibal, the court was told, was interested only in eating someone who actually wanted to be eaten. The defence is arguing that Meiwes should be sentenced only for "killing on request", claiming he was a reluctant mercy killer of someone who had suicidal tendencies, the computer programmer Bernd Jurgen Brandes, with whose murder Meiwes is charged.
Cannibalism is not a crime in the German penal code. If the court accepts that the act of cannibalism is legally irrelevant, and that the killing was done on request, Meiwes stands to serve a maximum of five years in jail and may even get away with just six months.
However, the prosecutor is pressing charges of murder driven by sexual desire.
Judge Muetze, perhaps recognising that murder might be difficult to prove, reminded the prosecution that Meiwes could also be tried for manslaughter or desecration of the dead.
Mr Moller was crisp and to the point. Court sources said he confirmed he had engaged in "hectic" email conversations with Meiwes. Eventually the cannibal and his potential victim agreed to a date, in the winter of 2001 in the Etap Hotel in Mannheim. This was after the killing and partial eating of Brandes in March 2001.
Meiwes met Mr Moller in the hotel lobby and shook hands. "You must be hungry after your journey," Meiwes said. The two men went out for a Big Mac and french fries. In the hotel room the pair stripped naked and lay with each other. Then Meiwes wrapped clingfilm around the body of the London manager and placed pins in him as if mapping him out for butchery. "It was just a role play," Mr Moller said, according to a source inside the courtroom.
Part of the game was that Meiwes should pronounce a death sentence. Meiwes had accordingly printed an "execution order" on his computer and presented it to the prone and handcuffed man.
Harald Ermel, the defence lawyer, speaking outside the court, admitted Meiwes had wanted more than a game - he was really sizing Mr Moller up for eating.
But when the cannibal showed pictures of Mr Buse to Mr Moller, the London conference organiser took fright. "Not like that – I don't want to do it like that," he said.
Mr Buse said yesterday he had been shaved under his armpits and in the pubic region, and then hung upside down on a hook as part of a slaughtering game. Mr Buse – who met the cannibal five times in 30 months – wanted to be let down from the hook because his ankles were hurting.
"This supports my client's testimony," Mr Ermel said.
"If you're hanging naked upside down, you have to trust the man standing opposite you. Meiwes did not betray this trust."
After some hours in the hotel room, Meiwes and his London visitor went to see the film Oceans Eleven. They parted on good terms; it was not an example of a victim fleeing from his potential murderer, the court was told.
The case continues.
Social note -- other fun things to do with a cannibal -- ping.
------------------------------
And maybe be a littl crazy?
No one wants to be identified as the partner of one of Europe's most notorious cannibals.
The two obviously did have an obsession with death
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.